


Among the Stars

by PokeChan



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Holiday Fic Exchange, Holidays, M/M, happily married with kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-18 23:51:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9408191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PokeChan/pseuds/PokeChan
Summary: Being an on-call emergency engineer was a difficult thing. Being the husband of one was arguably more difficult.Written for the KuroFai Gift Exchange.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stellariver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellariver/gifts).



> I stalled out hard on this one and wound up starting three different ideas before settling here. One of the ideas was connected to my 2016 Olymfic which I might one day finish and post separately. But anyway!! I hope you enjoy this!

Being an on-call emergency response engineer was a difficult job. It had eclectic hours, demanding labor, stressful work conditions. Not to mention how dangerous it was. It was a job for the sturdy and quick thinking. One needed to be practically superhuman to even survive the job, most never had time for romance or a family. It was all just too much to balance.

So when Kurogane got a call about a ship’s engine blowing out just outside of their station’s orbit Fai tried so hard to understand that it wasn’t Kurogane choosing to be absent on Yule’s Eve but his job calling him to save the lives of those on that ship. 

Tried.

“Surely there’s someone else?” Fai hissed under his breath. He loved his husband, but that career of his could stand to be replaced. “Or maybe it could wait until morning?”

Kurogane sighed irritably. “You know as well as I do how dangerous it is to have an undocked ship sitting there without propulsors,” he said. He was right, it was terribly dangerous this far out. Space was a truly dangerous and unpredictable place. Fai didn’t have to like that Kurogane was right though. “And you also know I’m on first call duty this week.”

“Which is so unfair!” Fai said. “You have a family!”

“So do a lot of the other engineers,” Kurogane said. Fai knew that only five of Kurogane’s twelve coworkers had significant others of any sort, and only two of them had children. “Don’t look at me like that, a family is more than a husband and kids.”

Fai didn’t say anything to that, only huffed and picked up his lukewarm mug of cocoa. He was no engineer, but Fai knew that propulsor issues could be solved in as little as a couple of minutes or as much as several days. Fai had never felt like he had particularly good luck and prepared himself for a long night awake worrying about his husband.

He listened sullenly to Kurogane packing a bag and checking his tool kit. He was so preoccupied with his husband that Fai didn’t even hear the two little pairs of feet toddling down the stairs. Only when Syaoran tugged on his shirt did Fai even realize that his babies were out of bed.

“Papa where is ‘tou-san going?” Syaoran asked.

“He has his tools!” Sakura piped, scrambling towards Kurogane, forgoing walking for the faster method of crawling. “Otou-san! Is someone in trouble?”

Kurogane stopped checking over his gear and smiled down at Sakura, scooping her up as soon as the little angel got within arm’s reach. “Only a little bit of trouble, no need to worry, Princess.”

“Can we come? I wanna help!” Sakura declared, bouncing hopefully in Kurogane’s arms. “Papa and Syaowan can come too!” she added as an afterthought.

“Yeah! Yeah! I wanna come too!” Syaoran cried, jumping up and down.

As Fai tried to settle the two children down Kurogane set Sakura back on the ground and rooted around in his pockets, pulling out his pager and handing it to Sakura. 

“If you wanna come you gotta ask the witch.”

“Don’t talk about Yuuko-san like that around the children!” Fai said, swatting Kurogane on the shoulder, which only earned him a shrug.

While Sakura and Syaoran tried to figure out how to make the pager produce the holoscreen they needed to call Yuuko Kurogane went back to packing his toolkit.

The station supplied any and everything the engineers and techs needed, top of the line, state of the art equipment was readily available for any of them, not to mention the emergency kits kept on any solar ship that carried more than two people, but Kurogane insisted on using his own. Whenever Fai asked why he got some gruff answer about being familiar with those tools and working best with tools that he understood.

It wasn’t as if Kurogane’s tools were dated. The furthest any of Kurogane’s tools were behind the times was a model or two, which was even more the reason Fai didn’t understand why Kurogane insisted on keeping his own, and at home no less. Engineers could be so neurotic sometimes.

“Ichihara here, what’s the problem Ku- oh! Hello children.” Yuuko’s voice sounded behind Fai, going from business-like and ever so slightly irate to syrupy sweet and playful in a single breath. “And to what do I owe this delightful surprise? Are you playing with your daddy’s pager?”

“Smart little twerps,” Kurogane muttered under his breath, unable to keep the pride from his face as he watched Sakura and Syaoran bombard Yuuko with rapid fire questions and pleas until even the supernaturally unflappable business woman looked a bit overwhelmed.

Not that it was surprising, Sakura and Syaoran were far more of a handful than Yuuko’s boy, Kimihiro. She was used to a quiet, shy little boy who only lost his temper for short bursts at a time. Fai had yet to discover if his little ones came with off buttons. 

Yuuko laughed and Fai tuned out the conversation for a bit. Kurogane’s boss was a fine woman and absolutely adored Syaoran and Sakura. 

While Kurogane packed Fai stepped into the other room to pout in solace. He tried to perk himself up. He told himself that Kurogane didn’t get called away very often, and almost never for more than a day or two at most. He knew he was lucky. Kurogane’s job paid well, much better than Fai’s job at the station’s canteen. Kurogane’s job was the reason they’d been able to afford to have children. 

Memories of when he and Kurogane had first begun dating came to mind, warming him like the first sip of hot tea on a cold night. He shook his head at himself as he recalled how he’d sworn to himself nightly that he’d put up with anything if it meant keeping Kurogane by his side. Nothing was too tall of an order or too outlandish of a request. It had been a blessing that Kurogane was a remarkably selfless man. He had only asked two things of Fai; for his hand in marriage and to agree to move out of one of the Illumination Stations situated just outside of the furthest galaxies. 

Excited cheering eventually drew Fai back to the present, feeling more steady and understanding after his brief introspection. He headed back into the front room just in time to see Syaoran and Sakura darting upstairs.

“The shuttle will be arriving shortly,” Yuuko was telling Kurogane. “The emergency stabilizers are slowing the ship from drifting further into the Outer, but I’m sure you know nothing is truly still in space. I want at least a diagnosis before 0400 hours.”

“You’ll have it, don’t worry,” Kurogane said. “I’ll be in contact. Out.”

Yuuko’s image flickered and vanished and Kurogane stooped to pick up his pager from where the kids had left it on the floor, fastening it back onto his belt before looking at Fai with soft eyes and a warm smile. “Well, you heard the witch, shuttle is on it’s way, pack a few nights worth of clothes.”

No way.

“Unless,” Kurogane continued, raising an eyebrow teasingly. “You would rather stay here on your own while I take the kids along?”

Fai flung a pillow from the couch at Kurogane before dashing back to his room as giddily as the children had before him. He paid little attention to what he was shoving into a duffle bag, not even folding the shirts he was grabbing off hangers (something he was sure he would regret in the morning, but right now wrinkles were the last thing on his mind). Hastily zipping up his bag, Fai managed to have the forethought to double check when the kids were packing, reminding them to take clean under things and toothbrushes.

In no time at all Kurogane was calling for them all to hurry up and began loading his tools into the shuttle that would take them to the stranded ship. 

The whole way up Sakura chattered nonstop to Kurogane, asking questions about the engine and what Kurogane thought might have gone wrong. There was no doubt in Fai’s mind that she was going to follow in her father’s footsteps, especially since some of the things she was talking about eluded Fai’s understanding entirely. Syaoran, on the other hand, spent the hour long trip glued to the porthole calling out the names of stars and systems as he recognized them.

Both of his children were so happy in those moments that any resentment Fai might have felt towards Kurogane being called in for work was gone. Right now, his family was together and happy and that was enough for him. He pressed a kiss to Kurogane’s cheek and snuggled up close to his side, letting out a content sigh when one of Kurogane’s arms came to wrap around Fai’s shoulders.

He supposed there were worse ways to spend a holiday than among the stars.


End file.
